Six
by Moonygirl36
Summary: Everyone's favorite brotp, Mako and Lin, go on an investigation together into the past. They have six suspicious candidates and have to go out into the field to collect more information and narrow down the suspects. Lots of momboss and detectiveson. In fact, that's the whole story. momboss and detectiveson forever.
1. The Begining of an Investigation

Mako walked along the old shelves in the basement of Republic City Hall. These dust filled rooms held the city's archives, and potentially, what he was looking for. However, a lot of documents were unfortunately destroyed when the spirit vines invaded City Hall and put a vine through Raiko's office. Mako wasn't even sure that what he was looking for even existed anymore because of that.

He stopped when he reached the section he was currently seeking. Hopefully, he could gather something of use. He perused through the papers and boxes, looking for something, anything that could help him. Maybe it was his inner detective, but curiosity had gotten the better of him. For all he knew, what he was doing could get him fired if the Chief found out.

Finally he found something that might be relevant. He pulled an old box that nearly fell apart in his hands down from the shelf. He carefully examined its contents and selected a few papers, which he then put into a folder in his bag. He was done here for now. If he didn't have what he was looking for now, he would never have it. It was going to be quite the investigation to find out though.

* * *

><p>Not every day as a cop was the thrilling adrenalin rush Mako had imagined when he first started working. For instance, today he was stuck at his desk answering phones. He could hear Lin in is head as he complained internally.<p>

"Everyone's gotta do it, kid" she had told him.

He knew the chief was right, but it was still his least favorite part of the job. On these days he sometimes wished another ruthless dictator would attack the city just so he could get some action. Mako was thankful he was back on cop duty though, and not King Wu's body guard. The guy had grown on him, but his home was here in Republic City. This was where his friends and family were. He belonged here.

Still, the only thing it seemed like he could do right now was twiddle his thumbs and slouch in his chair waiting for someone to call because their cat owl went missing.

Mako remembered the files in his bag. Could he really get away looking at them while he was here at work? The chief was in her office right now. If she did come out, he could easily cover them up with some other papers. After all, cops often did have reason for files similar to these relating their work. It wouldn't look out of the ordinary. Mako decided looking through them was better than sitting there doing nothing.

He quietly took the papers out of his bag and began perusing though them, eliminating the ones that turned out to be of no use. A few of them were on people too young to be suspects. Others didn't live in the city during the years he was concerned with. He would return these later to the archives when he got a chance.

After an hour or so, he was almost through all the documents he had picked up. Mako was in one of his detective modes, solely focused on the job at hand. Only a few more to go through, and he was done with the paper part of his investigation. Mako wasn't really sure what he was going to next. Even since the beginning, he didn't know where all this was going and what he was going to do even if he did find an answer.

The young cop's focus was suddenly burst.

"MAKO!" Lin shouted, "Pick up the damn phone!"

"uhhh…" the young cop said as he was brought back to reality. The phone rang again.

"I know you love investigation, but you're answering phones right now! Get to it!" said Lin again as she walked towards him.

Mako promptly picked up the phone. He was immediately screamed at by the person on the other end.

"Yes I understand mam," he said trying to calm the woman down. "We are very busy though, sometimes we just can't get on the line immediately. What is your reason for calling?"

Lin frowned at Mako. She could hear the woman who called make another passive aggressive comment about the police force before reporting the reason for her call. Lin looked over Mako's shoulder to see what he was working on. She had to see what was so important that he didn't hear is phone ring anyways. Lin didn't think Mr. Supercop had any current investigation going. Usually he was overly eager to tell her about what he working on. To her surprise, Mako seemed to intentionally block her view by shifting his position in the chair, and pretended to causally cover up what he working on with other papers.

"So you believe your house was robbed this morning while you were at work?" said Mako still on the phone. Lin reached for whatever was under the papers. Mako conveniently shoved them to the side as he stood up and started putting his jacket on with his free hand.

"Ok, Ok, You know it was robbed. I'm on my way right now," he said.

Lin glared at him.

"On second thought, we'll send another officer down."

Mako quickly called down to the communications room to radio the officer closest on patrol about the incident. Lin watched him intently and Mako began sweating nervously, hoping that he could get out of this. He gulped hard as he put the phone back down.

"What's the meaning of this? Being distracted at work, acting suspiciously. It's not you, Mako."

The junior cop decided to take a line from his brother's book, and try to talk is way out of this. "Well… the force… we were going to throw you a… surprise birthday party." Lin raised an eyebrow. "Yay?" Mako added.

"My birthday isn't for 7 more months." Lin reached for the papers on his desk. Mako knew he could do nothing and just sat there praying silently to the spirits for a miracle.

Lin scanned through the papers quickly, showing no emotion. When she was done, she looked up from the documents and straight at Mako. "You. My office. Now."

Mako silently thanked the universe for his time here as a cop as he followed Lin into her office. He supposed Wu would take him back. The guy loved him. It wouldn't be that bad moving to Ba Sing Se and leaving all his friends and family behind, right?

"Sit," said Lin as she pointed to one of the chairs. She sat at her desk and pressed her finger together, eyebrows down, clearly thinking and slightly angered. Mako thought she was deciding whether she was going earthbend him through the roof or simply just throw him out the window.

After a few moments of silence, Mako spoke up. "Listen Chief, I know this looks really bad, but you just have to trust me on this one. I was just…"

Lin interrupted him. "Shut your yapper. You're no different from your brother sometimes… Is he the one who told you about this?"

"Well yeah."

"Those files you had, they were all about men who lived or had lived in Republic City named Kanto. I know what you're up to, and I'm going to ask you to stop. You don't need to be meddling with my personal life."

"Yes, Chief."

Mako was relieved. He really thought he was going to get fired, or worse. The Chief must really have a soft spot for him.

"Leave," Lin said forcefully. Mako got up and started to head back to his desk.

Before he opened the door though, he stopped and turned around. He had something else to say. "Chief, it was wrong of me to delve into your personal life. I know that and I'm sorry. But Bolin told me how upset you got over the fact that you didn't know your father at all. For the first time ever, you know his name, and you didn't do anything about it for months. That's why I had to do it for you."

This made Lin furious with Mako. She never liked it when people thought they could just waltz into her life and fix it. "What were you going to do?" she asked sarcastically, "Put together a little file and present it to me in a bow? Organize a family reunion if he isn't dead already?"

"No," said Mako bluntly. "I didn't know what I was going to find, or even if I could find anything. I really hadn't planned out anything. It all just kind of happened. Aren't you even a little bit curious about what your dad is like? What he did for a living? Things like that?"

Lin twitched her jaw side to side, still upset. "If he didn't want to be in my life when I was growing up, I don't want to know him now."

Mako tightened his face. "Chief, your mother didn't even tell you his name until a few months ago! For all you know, he might not even know he had a daughter! But if you never bother to investigate, you'll never know!"

Lin crossed her arms. She was considering what Mako told her. She hated being wrong, but the kid made a point. Here she was judging her father, and she literally knew absolutely nothing about the guy. Mako was right too. She wouldn't put it past her mother to do something as selfish as not telling your ex that you have a child together. She loved her mom, but for spirit's sake she didn't tell her own daughters who their dads were until they were in well into their middle ages.

Lin looked up from her desk to Mako, and took a deep breath through her nose. Begrudgingly, she said, "So what have you found?"

Mako smiled that he had gotten through to the Chief. He then cleared his throat and put on a serious face. "Well, there have been 43 people who lived in Republic City named Kanto. Of these, 27 are not old enough to be your father. 10 more didn't live in the city at the time around when you were born. That leaves 6. Of them, 4 are deceased, but they could still have been your father."

"Hmm," said the Chief, processing this information. She looked at the files Mako had marked in the folder. These were the six he was referring to. "Mako, what are you doing next Saturday?"

"I'm on duty. I'm scheduled to work patrol."

"Your shift is being changed to Wednesday. I'll meet you at your apartment. Since this was all your idea, you're coming with me to check these guys out."

Mako tried to hide his grin. Lin had mentored him the last three years and he believed she deserved these answers that had been denied to her all her life. He was more than happy to help out. "Yes, Chief. I'll see you bright and early."


	2. One

The satomobile pulled up in front of the doorstep of 204 Ta Min Avenue. Lin got out of the driver's side. They had decided to start with the one of the two gentlemen who were still alive, figuring they would be easier to get answers out of then extended family members.

"This is it, right?" the Chief asked.

"Yup. This is it," replied the junior detective, Mako. He was on an off the books type investigation with the chief.

The house was located in the old section of town, what was originally Yu Dao before it became Republic City. The old and faded red color of the building showed the age of the structure. It was tightly packed in between two other houses, in a way that made it appear as it had been squeezed in between them.

The two cops went up to the door and Mako knocked. A few moments passed before a woman in her late forties with salt and pepper hair opened the door. She initially greeted them with a smile, but quickly she realized who was at her door by their uniforms and the satomobile marked _Republic City Police._ Her expression turned to that of concern.

"Please don't tell me this is about Gung again," the woman said.

Mako spoke up, "Um we're not here about a Gung. He's not in trouble… at least that we know of. We're here about something else."

The woman raised an eyebrow in confusion. She clearly couldn't think of any other reason why the police would be here.

"Is there a man by the name of Kanto who lives here?" asked Lin.

"Why yes. That's my father. But why would you want to talk to him? He barely leaves the house anymore he's so old and frail."

Lin began as how she would normally deal with reluctant citizens, "We received a lead that suggests your father might have information. We just want to ask him a few questions."

The woman gave her a suspicious look. Mako came in for the rescue though.

"What my boss means to say is that the police force is doing some historical research on how the department was founded."

Lin narrowed her eyes at Mako. She didn't like his whole 'what my boss means' thing. She said EXACTLY what she had meant. Mako knew that though, but he also knew that being so direct probably wasn't going to get them inside. It wasn't like they could intimidate the lady or come back later with a warrant. He continued talking.

"Since your father has lived here in Republic City for so long, we figured we would come by and ask him a few things."

The Chief didn't like the fact that Mako had lied, but the woman's demeanor suddenly shifted.

"Oh that sounds interesting! Come on in, my dad loves to tell stories. He'll be glad for some new listeners, and frankly I will too, but don't tell him I said that. My name is Kaitai if you need anything."

Mako and Lin followed her inside. They walked through a living room where it was clear someone made use of the couch as a bed often. A ratty blanket sat on it messily, and a few beer bottles were strewn on the floor next to it.

"Please don't mind the clutter," said Kaitai, "My brother Gung sometimes crashes here. He always makes a mess, and I'm just not gonna clean up after him anymore!"

Lin and Mako had both seen much worse. This was nothing.

"You might have even seen him down at the station once or twice before," the woman joked.

Lin didn't find it humorous though. She didn't laugh. "So, your father?" she asked.

"Yes. He's right back here in the bedroom."

Sitting up in bed, listening to the radio was old man. Despite the strangeness of police officers being in his room, he didn't seem phased at all.

"Dad?" said Kaitai, "These nice police officers want to talk to you about the good old days. You mind answering their questions?"

The man smiled, "Why, of course."

"I'll go get some tea for us," said Kaitai as she went to the kitchen. It was just Mako, Lin, and Kanto.

The old man reached to turn of radio. His movements were slow, but still precise. "So what would you kids like to know?"

Lin answered, "We'd like to know if you had any personal involvements with any of the officers on the force back in the early days of Republic City."

"Personal involvements?" replied Kanto, "Can't say I really had any firsthand experience with any police officers. I always tried to be a law abiding citizen."

"Not anything?" asked Mako.

Kanto thought for a moment, "Well, there was that one tiny incident where I got a traffic violation…"

Lin interrupted and said dryly, "I think that's all we'll need for the research. Thank you. Your input will be extremely useful to the police historical report." She started to leave the room.

Kanto looked very confused. "But I didn't even tell the story…"

Mako lightly grabbed Lin's arm. He leaned over and whispered, "At least listen to the guy. If we leave without hearing his story, it would look suspicious." Lin realized he was right. She turned her attention back to the man.

"Sorry about that," said Mako, "the Chief's just kind of tired. Long shift yesterday."

Kanto's bushy white eyebrows perked up, "You're Chief Beifong? Why, you'll love to hear this story! It was your mother who gave me that ticket! And boy it was quite the story now that I remember!"

Lin's attention was renewed as Kanto spoke.

"The year was 118 AG. Back then there were no satomobiles or any fancy technology like they have today. All we had was ostrich horses and buggies. And if you didn't have that, well you had to walk. Or well, you could ride a bicycle, but that's pretty much just walking anyway. Man, the streets smelled a lot worse back then because of all those ostrich horses being in one place. Just because there weren't any satomobiles didn't mean you couldn't get a ticket though. Speeding wasn't really a thing, but driving recklessly was. I usually was a good driver, but those ostrich horses have good and bad days, just like the rest of us, and I was in a rush. I didn't actually knock over that fruit stand, but it sure was close let me tell you."

Lin sighed as a frown displayed itself on her face. She was clearly growing impatient with the old man's meandering story. "Ok, Ok," she said. "Can you just skip to the part where you were issued a ticket?"

"Ah… yes," said Kanto. "So there I was sitting on the side of the street in complete confusion. I got out panicked, only to find that the entire back left tire had been torn off my buggy! Over by the fruit stand I had jostled, was an officer reeling in her cables, sparks flying at her sides. I didn't realize it was the Chief, so I yelled some not so pleasant things. I was very upset let me tell you. Toph didn't even seem to care though. She just walked over to me munching on an apple like nothing had happened. Then I realized it was her, Toph Beifong! Chief of police! Inventor of metalbending! I even heard a rumor once that she was the one who took down Ozai! Not Avatar Aang. I'd believe it!"

Lin had to intervene. "Ok that is definitely not true. She did not take down Fire Lord Ozai," she said with a certain tone of finality.

Kanto continued, "I was kind of scared of her at first, but it turns out she wasn't as terrifying as I feared. She walked up to me and asked me sarcastically if I was having any car trouble and that as an officer of the law, she was obliged to help me. What a nerve! But I wasn't exactly in apposition to be saying no, since I had somewhere to be. She helped me put the wheel back on good enough to get me where I was going."

"Wait so she never actually gave you a ticket?" asked Mako?

"No. Not actually now that I think about it."

"So there were no deputies with her?" asked Lin, "If she was on duty, she would have had at least one deputy with her to write up arrests and such."

"Nope. I guess she was off duty," replied Kanto.

"Sounds like she just delayed you on purpose because she didn't want you to get away with driving like that almost taking out the fruit stand," said Lin, "You're really not supposed to go around tearing people's cars apart for something like that."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," said Kanto, "But it all worked out in the end. I found her to be pretty agreeable of a person, and very impressive too. I even asked her out on a date when all was said and done."

"Really!?" said the two cops in unison.

"Yup. But she had to turn me down. Coincidentally, she had a boyfriend with the same name as me! What a small world!"

Lin put her hand to her forehead in annoyance, "I can't flaming believe this," she grumbled. "Come on Mako, let's go."

Just as Lin said this, Kaitai returned with the tea she had promised. "Leaving already? Please, before you leave, have some."

Mako just shrugged. He figured it couldn't hurt. They both grabbed a cup and Kaitai filled them. "So did my dad tell you anything of use for your research?" she asked.

Mako and Lin looked at each other. "I guess you could say that," said Lin. She didn't want to disappoint the woman or the old man.

"We obtained a valued firsthand account of Chief Toph Beifong's valiant effort towards justice and commitment to compassion, even while off duty," added Mako, "It will be very useful."

A few moments of silence passed as the four sipped their tea in the bedroom. Lin was eager to change the subject of conversation.

"So, your brother, Gung… Is he causing you trouble here often?" she asked Kaitai.

The woman took a breath and her eyes flicked down briefly, "Gung? Trouble? Yes, but he's family. We can't turn our backs on him. I'll never let him sleep on the street, even as bad as he gets."

"My son is a good man," said Kanto. "The drink got him, and we've tried to get him help, but he insists he doesn't have a problem. There's nothing else we can do. We can't force him to change if he doesn't want to."

Lin thought to herself that that wasn't completely true, but she didn't come here to tell these people how to live their lives.

This talk of her brother was evidently making Kaitai a little uneasy. It clearly was a vulnerable topic for her. "Well, you officers are probably very busy with your work. We won't worry you with our little problems any longer," she said, "Thank you for taking the time to listen to my father."

"It was no problem at all," said Mako, "He was a pleasure to talk to and very informative."

With that, the two cops left.

In the patrol car Mako joked, "I can't believe he actually thought Toph might have been the one to take down Firelord Ozai. Some people will believe anything! How does a rumor like that even get started?"

"I know," said Lin point blank. Mako didn't really expect that.

Mako looked at her quizzically. Lin saw his expression out of the corner of her eye. "It was probably my mother who started a rumor like that to be honest."

Mako was shocked. "What do you mean? Why would she do that?"

Lin smiled. "Well, she and Aang were always friends, but they didn't see eye to eye on everything. I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that as a way to get back at him for something petty. They were both incurable pranksters, you know."

"Hmm," Mako said, "Must have skipped over that part in Jinora's books."

The following Monday, as Lin was headed up to her office, she stopped briefly to talk to one of the workers in administration. "Please notify me if a Gung from Ta Min Avenue is booked."

"Sure thing, Chief," said the worker.

A few weeks later an officer approached Lin, "Chief, a man by the name of Gung was booked last night. He's in holding. I understand you requested to be informed if he was taken into custody?"

"Put him in a room where I can talk to him."

"Will do, Chief."

The man sitting at the table in front of her was clearly hung over. Hopefully he was present enough mentally to think clearly.

"You have been arrested multiple times for violations all dealing with alcohol," said Lin, "We don't need people like that in Republic City, so I'm going to make you an offer. We'll drop all your charges from last night if you agree to go into a six month rehabilitation program just outside the city."

The man grumbled, "I don't have a problem. Just having a little fun that got out of control, Ok?"

Lin narrowed her eyes, "You may have gotten off easy before, but you're a repeat offender. If you don't take this deal, I am going to personally make sure you end up with some serious time behind bars." The Chief meant it too. She always meant business.

The man gulped hard. "So you're saying I just go to this rehab center for six months, and you'll let me off scratch free?"

"You have to complete the program, and it's not easy. Usually we only offer this type of deal to younger people, but I'm making an exception for you. Consider yourself lucky."

The man pondered over his options, not that he really had a choice if he valued is freedom long term.

"Deal."


End file.
